It has previously been proposed to continuously supply electrical contacts to a substrate by severing contact elements from a strip of contact material either in wire or tape or band or strip form so that it can be welded on a substrate carrier made of sheet metal, or wire at predetermined positions on the carrier. The contact elements which have been cut off are guided through a contact guide path which extends from the cutting or severing device towards the welding position, providing a feed movement in forward direction and a retrace movement in backward direction having different lengths. In such an apparatus--see the referenced German publication DT-AS No. 2 250, 461--the contacts are applied to the welding point at an acute angle. The wire of contact material is held in a clamp. The wire pushes the severed contact element forwardly until it is positioned, as desired, on the substrate contact carrier.
The feed mechanism for such an arrangement is comparatively complex since the feed stroke is different for the forward feed and for the retrace; the guide path for the contact element itself is comparatively long resulting in a complex arrangement to insure accuracy. Consequently, the speed of application of contact elements to the substrate is limited.
One welding apparatus has an application in the order of from about 100 to 130 welds per minute, as advertised by the manufacturing firm Schlatter.